North Shore’s ‘gantze megillah,’ 15 years running

Posted
Wednesday, March 16, 2016 8:51 am

A milestone at the North Shore Hebrew Academy (NSHA) Middle School, in Great Neck, will be reached when 19 students, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, chant Megillat Esther for their schoolmates, faculty and families, on Purim.

Over the past 15 years, more than 250 students at the NSHA have been instructed by Dr. Paul Brody, a dermatologist by profession, (back row, third from left). This unique program enables students to read the Megillah at various shuls, hospitals, nursing homes and private homes, for those unable to attend public readings.

Middle School Principal, Rabbi Adam Acobas and the head of school, Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin (back row, at far right), facilitate the students’ hectic schedules to enable adequate review time with Dr. Brody.

The students have attained a distinctive accomplishment, joining a small, qualified group who possess the knowledge to publicly chant the Megillah. Dr. Brody, who has read the Megillah for over 40 years, chanted it at the Great Synagogue in Leningrad in 1985, despite great peril; the gabboyim were actually members of the KGB!